The number of people with jobs in the euro zone was unchanged for the second consecutive quarter in the three months to September, showing the bloc’s economic recovery has not yet filtered through to the labour market.

But euro zone employment was shrinking more slowly than a year ago on a year-on-year basis -- it contracted 0.8 per cent in the third quarter against -1.1 in the previous three months, data from the EU's Eurostat showed today. The unemployment in the €9.5 trillion economy, ravaged by four years of financial and economic crisis, remains near a record high above 12 per cent and is expected to ease only gradually next year as economic growth slowly picks up.

Along with Portugal and the UK, Ireland showed the greatest improvement, at 1.1 per cent, in the third quarter.

Job creation, like the uneven economic recovery, differs from country to country and from sector to sector. While Europe’s largest economy Germany saw a quarterly 0.2 per cent rise in employment, the second largest France registered no change for a third consecutive quarter. Job creation was also flat in Italy and it fell in Spain, but the situation in both euro zone countries was improving since the beginning of this year, data showed.

Agriculture, industry and construction all showed a 0.3 per cent drop in employment compared with the previous quarter, while real estate, professional and support activities were up 0.4 per cent.